By Dr Ayanda Vilakazi
The Coega Development Corporation (CDC), known for its ability to engineer solutions to complex socio-economic development challenges as well as to create opportunities, announced during the week that it was launching its ground-breaking Coega Global Scholars Programme (CGSP), which is a significant milestone for the June Youth Month.
“The CGSP is a Talent Identification and Retention programme, which seeks to strengthen the capacity of the CDC by training post-graduate (Masters) level current management talent and future talent by sending them to selected Top Tier Global Universities specialising in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and related interdisciplinary studies,” said Khwezi Tiya, CDC Chief Executive Officer.
The concept of the Coega Global Scholars Programme emanates with the idea of progressively building a valuable, unique and fresh talent pool that will enable the realisation of a sustainable competitive advantage and create stakeholder value.
The programme is in line with the CDC’s vision to be the leading catalyst for championing of socio-economic development of the country. The programme seeks to contribute towards socio-economic transformation, organisational and national capacity as the benefits will not only be realised by the CDC, but by all institutions that continue to enjoy the CDC’s expertise and support.
According to Zola Ngoma, CDC Unit Head: Human Resources, the programme will be executed over a period of five years, with intakes for Masters-level qualifications which tend to have an average duration of two years. In addition, highly-rated Asian and European Universities have been identified, with a target of thirty candidates, comprising of a 60/40 split between internal and external candidates, respectively.
“The programme is designed to ensure sustainable gender representation and organisational transformation. Thus, it seeks to ensure a 60% participation for women in the programme,” elaborated Zola.
“As we celebrate this significant milestone, we hope that the Coega Global Scholars programme addresses and mitigates the skills gap that may arise in the future and develop the next generation of leaders. Furthermore, we hope this programme will improve the organisations’ competitiveness and also enhance the CDC’s capability to be a world-class infrastructure, real assets management and related investment services company”, concluded Khwezi matter-of-factly.
For more resources from the CDC, click this link: http://www.coega.com/DocumentList.aspx?cmd=browse&objID=80&catID=6080
NOTE TO THE READERS
The following is a list of selected universities:
Universities from Asia
● Tsinghua University (People’s Republic of China)
● Harbin Institute of Technology (People’s Republic of China)
● Shanghai Jiao Tong University People’s Republic of China)
● Zhejiang University (People’s Republic of China)
● University of Science & Technology of China (People’s Republic of China)
● University of Tokyo (Japan)
● Tokyo Institute of Technology (Japan)
● Seoul National University (Republic of Korea)
● Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST) (Republic of Korea)
Universities from Europe
● Lomonosov Moscow State University (Russian Federation)
● Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Kingdom of Norway)
● ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology – Zurich) (The Swiss Confederation)
● EPFL (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology – Lausanne) (The Swiss Confederation)
● RWTH Aachen University (Federal Republic of Germany)
● Technical University of Munich (Federal Republic of Germany)
● Technical University of Darmstadt (Federal Republic of Germany)
● Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Federal Republic of Germany)
● University of Stuttgart (Federal Republic of Germany)
● Munich University of Applied Sciences (Federal Republic of Germany)
● TH Köln University of Applied Sciences (Federal Republic of Germany)
● Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences (Federal Republic of Germany)
● Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences (Federal Republic of Germany)
About the Coega Development Corporation (CDC)
The Coega Development Corporation (CDC) is headquartered in the City of Gqeberha, Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, South Africa, with a strategic operational footprint in South Africa and beyond the boarders in the African continent. The CDC’s vision is to be the leading catalyst for the championing of socio-economic development. This it seeks to achieve through the development and operation of the 9 003 hectare Coega Special Economic Zone (SEZ), a transshipment hub and a leading investment destination in Africa, providing highly skilled competence and capacity for the execution of complex infrastructure and related projects throughout South Africa and selected markets on the African continent, and advisory on the development of industrialization and logistics zones. The CDC’s advanced capabilities are successful enablers in economic zone development and management, real assets management, infrastructure planning and development, technology integration while realising related socio- economic impact areas such as skills and SMME development. The foundational culture of the CDC’s approach, backed by core values, is innovation and continuous improvement.
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For more information contact, please contact Dr Ayanda Vilakazi, Head of Marketing and Communications, at Coega Development Corporation at ayanda.vilakazi@coega.co.za